Think globally, work locally: distributed & remote teams in the program

SECR 2018
Sandra Aleksieje
Project Manager, Аурига

Nowadays the distributed and remote teams’ topic is equally actual in the projects management as the change management challenge. This requires knowledge and different steps to make it working and effective.

The presentation goal is to share experience and tips for distributed and remote teams’ management based on 7+ years’ experience and to review practically how it can work in Agile Scrum.

If those questions “How to gain value working in remote team? Does Agile Scrum works in remote and distributed team?” are actual for You and You are whiling to find more working practices, let’s meet in SERC and have a practical sharing session.

This might be considered and applied from both perspectives: individual who works in the remote team and team lead, who guides the team.

Transcript

1. Think globally, work locally: distributed & remote teams in the program Sandra Aleksieje Software Engineering Conference Russia 2018 October 12-13 Moscow 1
2. Objectives for today • #1: Challenges in the distributed & remote teams • #2: Experience & key notes • #3: Agile in remote teams 2
3. Remote & distributed work • Is a trust, and this trust works in both ways • You can use the trust to perform or waste it • No work environment does not work for everybody – strict boundaries help somebody • For people with poor discipline, this freedom can be an issue 3
4. Remote work stats – 52% work at least 1 day/week By Owl Labs, 2017 data 4
5. Remote work stats – want mostly to improve work/life balance By Owl Labs, 2017 data 5
6. Remote work stats – workers miss mostly By Owl Labs, 2017 data 6
7. Remote work stats – the biggest challenge for remote workers By Owl Labs, 2017 data 7
8. Top 5 challenges 1. They/Theirs versus We/Ours 2. Communication & culture 3. Not clear goals 4. Remote robots versus we are still humans 5. Know-how sharing in the remote team 8
9. Experience & key notes 9
10. What is a key element in the remote team? 10
11. Leading person • Direction • Bird’s eye view • Clear goals • Team attitude • Team pace • Team spirit & drive 11
12. Communication (I) 12
13. Communication (II) Microservices case • Nice: decoupled, distributed, easy to change. • Challenge: must be clear interface or API, a lot of networking. 13 Communication
14. Communication (III) • All team kick-off, sync-up meetings • Minutes of Meeting • Team building meetings • ! Small talk before the meeting • ! Shorter meetings • Re-confirm if you understood correctly • Both way communication • ! Feedback 14
15. Culture • Tips & tricks sessions about the culture • Spend some time in that culture • Ask about the social events 15
16. Humans or robots? • Face • Smile • Body language • Be open 16
17. Know-how sharing • Tech talks • Learned lessons • Documentation • Pair programming • Code reviews • Projects/tasks rotation 17
18. Cathedral view versus Bazaar view 18
19. One formula for all teams 19
20. One formula for all teams 20
21. Tools 21
22. Tools for remote & distributed teams • People make the tools special! 22
23. Don't need to reinvent the wheel • Invest more in high quality camera, microphone and whiteboard (virtual or real) 23
24. Around the corner feeling • Real time video & audio monitors in remote teams room – you can see team all the day and say ‘Hey’ any time 24
25. Tools 25
26. Can Agile be a part of distributed and remote teams? 26
27. Agile in remote team – our strengths 27
28. Golden hours • Shift working hours • Rotate meeting time • Spend more time together 28
29. Communication – daily stand-ups 29
30. Tasks assignment / Know-how base • Different tasks • Higher motivation • Increased team satisfaction • All code base understanding • Easy to mentor newcomers for everybody 30
31. Ownership • No shared responsibility • Actions • Rights to transfer the ownership • Transparency who is doing what 31
32. Takeaways • Communicate MORE & find the way works for YOUR team • Shorten meetings • Clarify the goals • Try to avoid assumptions • Engage team in everything if you can, let them feel – they a part when deciding something • Don’t forget human sense in the remote work • Use tools which helps to perform better work results • Be transparent, open, flexible & rotate the tasks 32
33. Contact Me • Email: Sandra.Aleksieje@Auriga.com • LinkedIn: Sandra Aleksieje 33